Honolulu prosecutors will charge Florida man with murder in 1982 death of woman
Honolulu prosecutors are prepared to charge a 61-year-old Florida man with second-degree murder in the September 1982 death of Kathy Hicks, a 25-year-old Atlanta woman, whose body was found in Nuuanu shortly after the alleged crime.
Police said the suspect was identified through DNA comparison.
The Associated Press identified Thomas Garner, a dental hygienist in Florida, as the suspect in the Hicks homicide as well the 1984 murder of Pamela Cahanes, a U.S. Navy recruit.
He was arrested in March 2019 for Cahanes’ murder, and was found guilty May 6 of first-degree murder.
Garner was stationed in Hawaii from April 1980 to October 1982.
Hicks was a Delta Air Lines reservations clerk who was in Hawaii to play in a softball tournament when she was killed, according to Honolulu newspaper reports at the time.
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The Honolulu Police Department said Friday that detectives conferred with prosecutors who have accepted the case.
Garner’s DNA was found on Hicks’ underwear, according to authorities.